Bulgaria – Labor Market Leader

According to 2014 official data Bulgaria is the EU labor market leader in terms of low business labor cost. The country is first in the classification of low-cost and easily accessible human resources in EU from business perspective, i.e. investors can calculate much lower labor cost in the realization of investment projects in Bulgaria compared to any other member state.

3.80 EUR per hour

This is the average cost of hiring a worker in Bulgaria. Calculations show that one working day costs approximately 30.40 EUR to the business, which makes the country one of the most attractive entrepreneurial destinations all over the world. Along with that indisputable advantage, as part of EU, Bulgaria seems attractive to investors in almost any economic sector. The EU membership and the low-cost labor force provide an opportunity to accomplish low business cost and good manufacturing destination in terms of business image as well as geographical location.

The most expensive labor force is in Denmark (42.00 EUR per hour), followed by Belgium (41.10 EUR per hour). Of course, the living standard level in these states is considerably higher and the actual purchase power of such income rates is not that different, but the business advantages are indisputable. Practically, entrepreneurs can launch an investment initiative with approximately 10 times lower labor cost in Bulgaria compared to Germany.

This apparent advantage of Bulgaria’s economy is to be more intensively realized in the context of the full-scale EU membership of the country, the ongoing modernization of the infrastructure (road & telecommunications) as well as the more intensive education and qualification of human resources. If this turns into reality (there are sufficient reasons to expect that), Bulgaria could accomplish an impressive economic growth in the next few years and out-pass its own results from the pre-EU acceptance period which is traditionally considered the highest business progress of the country ever since the beginning of the democracy.